Chris Blackhurst is a former editor of The Independent, based in London
September 26, 2023
It is a good job that Jonathan Reynolds and Rachel Reeves are not prone to putting on weight, not so it would show.
Reynolds, the Shadow Business Secretary and Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor, were set the target of meeting executives from the UK’s 250 largest listed companies in a matter of months. That’s an awful lot of cups of tea, biscuits and more to get through.
As if that was not enough, anyone doubting Labour’s serious intent in persuading business that they are fit to govern and can be trusted with managing the economy should attend the party's annual conference in October. There, in Liverpool, they will witness a growing love-in between UK PLC and the successors to the socialists of old, who still stand to sing the Red Flag at the end of their annual gathering.
For the Tories, that used to be enough – red in tooth and claw, once a red, these were the phrases trotted out by the folk who clung to the belief they were the party of business. Under Tony Blair, New Labour worked hard at dispelling that notion, scrapping the ‘Clause 4’ nationalisation pledge in its constitution, repeatedly proclaiming affection for capitalist generators of wealth.
Then, under Gordon Brown, more of a left-wing ideologue, that romance waned but not entirely – businesspeople admired his seriousness and his intellect, and were full of praise for Brown’s handling of the banking crisis. He was followed, though, by Ed Miliband, less acceptable, and Jeremy Corbyn, oh dear.
Since, Keir Starmer has doggedly attempted to rekindle the affair. The chemistry may not be entirely right, there’s still a degree of distrust with corporates unable to shake-off the spectre of the union bosses hovering in the background and the front-bench presence of the likes of Angela Rayner, who they see as decidedly old left, and Labour’s refusal to condemn the public sector strikes.
Labour leader Keir Starmer addresses a business conference at Canary Wharf in London. PA
Nevertheless, Labour has steadily reclaimed lost ground. The exhibition in the main conference centre will be packed, as will the nightly receptions held by some of Britain’s biggest, best-known firms. The lobbyists and public affairs advisers will be out in force, wheeling their charges from one gathering to another. Some will be large; others will be small. An especially hot ticket will be the Gala Dinner, at which a member of the Labour leadership team will be present on each paid-for table.
They’ve been aided and abetted in their quest by the Tories. When he was premier, Boris Johnson did not disguise his disdain for big business, uttering profanities to that effect. In fact, the mutual loathing went back further, to Brexit – Britain’s companies were virtually unanimous in wishing to remain in the EU but their views were simply shoved aside by a scornful Johnson.
He was succeeded by Liz Truss, enough said. Now comes Rishi Sunak, who, on paper, ought to be able to count on their blessing. Sunak, though, in his desire to make his own mark has embarked on policy U-turns that do not sit easily in boardrooms.
They’re not fans of where he is heading on climate change, dismayed at the lack of certainty and clarity; and business had come round to the idea of HS2, believing infrastructure improvements were hugely needed, conscious, too, of other countries possessing their own superfast transport services and fearing Britain was being left behind.
Sunak, though, in his desire to make his own mark has embarked on policy U-turns that do not sit easily in boardrooms
It’s more than that. While the ‘Prawn Cocktail 2.0’ offensive (in reference to the previous concerted wooing of the City and industry by Blair’s predecessor, John Smith) and the attendant banquets and photo-calls are the public face, away from the spotlight a more discreet, high-powered courtship is playing out. Labour is extremely close to a top-drawer consultancy which specialises in discreetly advising and devising strategies and solving problems for domestic and international major brands and business organisations.
Hakluyt is named after the Elizabethan geographer, Richard Hakluyt, and was created by a clutch of former MI6 officers at the end of the Cold War. Frightfully secretive at first, the agency has become more public-facing, listing ex-heads of multinationals, bankers and diplomats on its website. Today, it claims to service 40 per cent of the world’s biggest companies and 75 per cent of the top 20 private equity houses.
Among the bevy of corporate and Whitehall heavyweights on its payroll are names that are identifiably close to Labour, including Varun Chandra, the managing director who once assisted Tony Blair, Baroness Vadera, the former Labour minister and economic adviser to Brown, and Emily Benn, Tony Benn’s granddaughter who used to work for Jonathan Powell, Blair’s old chief of staff.
Back in 2005, Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown attended the party's first official election campaign press conference in 2005. Getty Images
The word is that Starmer has asked them to facilitate private get-togethers with senior executives. Hakluyt is playing down the claim, issuing a statement of denial that it has the Party as a client to The National. Labour is not commenting.
It would make perfect sense for Labour to be using the consultancy – whether it is paying them is another matter. Unlikely, given Hakluyt operates at the highest end of the market and is known for commanding eye-watering fees.
Starmer is in regular contact with Blair, no slouch himself when it comes to advising and charging global businesses and governments for advice via his former Tony Blair Associates. Blair still has an extensive network and remains much admired and in heavy demand by the world’s corporate chiefs and political figures.
Also in close touch with Starmer is Peter Mandelson. Now Lord Mandelson, the former Labour spin doctor and branding mastermind is another to glide seamlessly between high-level politics and business. His consultancy, Global Counsel, advises businesses across the world. Like Hakluyt, Global Counsel does not publish its list of clients.
Business regarded Blair and Mandelson as acceptable faces of Labour, they know what it took to win over the sceptical suits. They spoke the right language and pressed the correct buttons but without entirely selling out their party. Hakluyt, with its Labour connections, is the same.
As time goes on, Starmer may be pleasantly surprised to find that increasingly he is not having to try that hard. Businesses like to back, and to be associated with, winners. It is a sign of how well Labour is doing that among the business community the party and its leader are now very popular indeed.
Next week: what can the Tories do, if anything, to recover their lost business crown?
Results:
6.30pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-2 (PA) | Group 1 US$75,000 (Dirt) | 2,200 metres
Winner: Goshawke, Fernando Jara (jockey), Ali Rashid Al Raihe (trainer)
8.15pm: Al Shindagha Sprint (TB) Group 3 | $200,000 (D) | 1,200m
8.50pm: Handicap (TB) | $175,000 (D) | 1,600m
9.25pm: Handicap (TB) | $175,000 (T) | 2,000m
10pm: Handicap (TB) | $135,000 (T) | 1,600m
Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode
Directors: Raj & DK
Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon
The flights Emirates flies to Delhi with fares starting from around Dh760 return, while Etihad fares cost about Dh783 return. From Delhi, there are connecting flights to Lucknow. Where to stay
It is advisable to stay in Lucknow and make a day trip to Kannauj. A stay at the Lebua Lucknow hotel, a traditional Lucknowi mansion, is recommended. Prices start from Dh300 per night (excluding taxes).
'Top Gun: Maverick'
Rating: 4/5
Directed by: Joseph Kosinski
Starring: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Ed Harris
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